This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition
This Week in Jacksonville Business Edition is a weekly digital series with News4JAX anchor Kent Justice who talks with the experts about business, economic development, jobs, technology and more.
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Why Beef ‘O’ Brady’s says Jacksonville still has room for more sports pubs
<p>Beef ‘O’ Brady’s COO Scott SirLouis says Jacksonville is one of the biggest remaining growth opportunities for the 40-year-old, Florida-grown “family sports pub” brand. He explains how Beef’s uses site analytics (cell phone and purchase-pattern modeling) to pinpoint strong neighborhoods, why grocery-anchored centers outperform mall-front real estate for them, and what makes the chain different in a crowded sports-bar category: kid-friendly booths and game rooms, community events like trivia and bingo, and a bar program that’s part of the mix—but not the identity.</p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</p>
Why a former congressman says the future belongs to skilled trades
<p>Workforce expert and former Congressman Dr. Jason Altmire joins Kent Justice on "This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition" to talk about his new book, Trade Up, and why he believes the future of American competitiveness depends on rebuilding the skilled-trades pipeline.</p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</p>
Exploring Dapper D's new concept in downtown Jacksonville
<p> Entrepreneur Darien “Jack” Jackson returns to This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition to open his newest downtown venture in the Elbow: Dapper Cheesesteaks downstairs paired with a cigar lounge experience upstairs in the former 11 Ocean space.Jackson walks host Kent Justice through a year of delays—from a slow permitting process and repeated plan revisions to contractor turnover that even led to litigation—before finally landing with a new construction team and clearing inspections ahead of a Friday grand opening.He also explains why this project was bigger than his previous Dapper D’s locations: he’s effectively launching two businesses a...
Jacksonville city leaders push for practical money skills in schools
<p> Florida now requires a stand-alone personal financial literacy course for high school graduation - but guests on This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition say the real question is whether it changes behavior. Host Kent Justice talks with Dr. Ronetta Wards of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund (JPEF) and Howard Dale of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville about what “financial literacy” should actually mean for 17- and 18-year-olds: credit, debt, taxes, budgeting, savings, investing, and even emerging currency like crypto. </p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</p>
Former Jags linebacker helps athletes translate sports skills into business moves
<p>Kent Justice talks with former Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Akin Ayodele, now Gallagher’s market leader for North Texas, about the Gallagher Partnership Internship Program with the Jaguars—designed to help pro athletes translate what they’ve built in sports (resilience, preparation, competition, leadership) into post-playing careers, especially in consultative sales and risk management. Ayodele explains how the program works (typically in the offseason), what interns experience day-to-day inside Gallagher, and why he believes employers should value an athlete’s mindset even if the résumé doesn’t look “traditional.”</p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.
Riverfront project key in $2.5B downtown developments
<p>In this episode, Colin Tarbert, the new CEO of Jacksonville’s Downtown Investment Authority (DIA), outlines the agency’s dual role as both a community redevelopment agency and the city’s economic development arm for downtown, using tax increment financing to drive growth. </p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</p>
What’s there to know about B2B tech companies, AI advancements
<p>Clayton Pritchard, a Jacksonville-based product marketer with experience at Meta, LinkedIn and Twitter, joins This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition to explain his acquisition of a B2B product marketing agency (Olivine) and why he’s choosing to run it remote-first from Jacksonville Beach.</p> <p> </p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</p>
How social media and email drive small business success in 2026
<p>Small businesses are spending more on marketing in 2026, even with inflation worries—but many owners still aren’t confident they’re putting those dollars in the right places. In this episode, Constant Contact’s Dave Charest explains why the most effective “one-two punch” remains social media plus email, and why email delivers more control and more reliable engagement than algorithm-driven social feeds. We talk about the trap of chasing every new platform, how focusing on one channel and building an opt-in audience can drive real revenue, and why retaining existing customers may outperform constantly chasing new ones. Charest also shares pract...
Jacksonville Children’s Chorus leader marks 20 years, sets sights on the world
<p>Kent Justice visits the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus in downtown Jacksonville and talks with Artistic Director Darren Dailey about how a youth arts nonprofit became a world-class cultural institution - and why that matters to the region’s growth.</p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</p>
How a new platform aims to cut weeks off Jacksonville's permitting process
<p>Kent Justice talks with Jacksonville contractor Fabian Videla about the least glamorous construction bottleneck: permitting. Videla says projects can stall for weeks or months at multiple points - figuring out the right forms for each city/county, collecting signatures and notarizations, waiting through plan review, and then stopping work for inspections. Those delays, he argues, ripple through Northeast Florida’s economy by raising costs for contractors, slowing business openings, and frustrating homeowners. Videla’s company, Permit Rockstar, aims to streamline the process end-to-end using AI-assisted form completion, remote online notarization, private plan review to speed approvals, and same-day virtual insp...
